<p>I have good news for you when you start your classes next week. Based on the academic qualifications of today?s students and the increasing propensity of our alumni to attend graduate schools, we have decided to raise the target average grade for Marshall?s required courses to B, and to raise the target average grade for Marshall?s elective courses to B+. We hope this change inspires you to even greater achievements during your time at Marshall.</p>
<p>It wasn't too bad, as the average runs close to a B- in some of the other highly-regarded schools such as engineering.</p>
<p>A lot of my dislike for the curve was based on principles; if you happen to be in a smart, high achieving class, you are punished. In addition, if everyone in the class does A work, shouldn't everyone get an A? (Not that that would ever happen, but still, my dislike it based on principle.</p>
<p>I would rather they get rid of the curve altogether, but loosening the curve is the next best thing.</p>
<p>I have never been taught under a curve. Could you explain how it works exactly (I have a vague idea) and the disdain for it (although that will probably come out in the explanation!).</p>
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I have never been taught under a curve. Could you explain how it works exactly (I have a vague idea) and the disdain for it (although that will probably come out in the explanation!).
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<p>Each lecture/discussion section has a mandate that the GPA meets the target GPA within .01.</p>
<p>In a class of 30, the top 2 or 3 got an A or A-, the vast majority got some form of a B, some slackers get a C, and if you never show up for class and don't do homework etc. you get a D. This was with the old curve, it'll get loosened now.</p>
<p>The prof can mix and match however he wants. If he hands out more A's he also has to assign more C's. More B plusses means fewers A's and so on.</p>
<p>I wouldn't quite call it disdain. Probably closer to annoyance. It creates at a atmospere where you are competing against your classmates. Some would say that's good, but I'm not high on artificially forcing that upon students.</p>
<p>That said, it's not too bad and with the B average it will run higher than some other majors anyway. I'm pretty sure Marshall isn't the only business school to do this - I know Michigan does it as well. Probably some others.</p>
<p>hmm, not sure why i didn't recieve it (im a Marshall senior). </p>
<p>anyway, they should have done this years ago. The current curve does nothing but push business students to take more easy LAS classes in order to boost their cum GPAs. Just my luck they would raise the curve as i'm about to graduate...</p>
<p>I would imagine it to be somewhat better in the upper-division courses...</p>
<p>for example, in one of my upper-div engineering last semester, out of 37 students, 7 earned A or A-. Not unusual, except professors have wide discretion to hand out grades in engineering so there's less of a formal curve (unless the professor decides to use one) - if they want, they can hand out A's and B's to everyone.</p>
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well, i've never been a top student so this scares me</p>
<p>econ major with business minor sounds better and better....
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<p>eh, I'm not sure the average will be that much higher than 3.0 in Econ anyway (maybe a 3.1 or so, just guessing). There just aren't that many easy A's to go around in college. :)</p>
<p>I thought the target before was 2.85 for core classes and 3.15 for electives. Will the .15 increase really make a differenence? If it does than I'm pretty excited for next semester :)</p>